Global economy

The ITUC seeks to increase intergovernmental cooperation to ensure that the social dimension of globalisation, including decent work and fundamental workers’ rights, is right at the centre of decision-making at the world’s major global and regional institutions. This includes the G-20, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and the United Nations and its specialised agencies, especially the International Labour Organisation (ILO) with its tripartite structure and mandate to set international social standards.

Global economy •News

To build a stronger and resilient world from the economic, health and social devastation of COVID-19 and the crises of inequality and climate change which preceded it, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund must move beyond structural reforms driven by market fundamentalism. Two new reports catalogue decades of failed policies that weakened the social contract and left countries vulnerable to the pandemic and economic crisis.

A new report commissioned by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and authored by the New Economic Foundation warns that proposals, currently on hold, for a WTO “e-commerce” agreement would further exacerbate inequality and division at a time when the world needs to work as one.

Decisions at the Spring Meetings of the international financial institutions help low-income countries put lives before debt payments and encourage global action to stop COVID-19. Facing the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the institutions and governments must go further and create a coordinated reconstruction plan to uplift lives and livelihoods.

The ITUC has called on the international financial institutions at their Spring Meetings next week to put in place an urgent and comprehensive plan in response to the economic destruction caused by the COVID pandemic, with jobs and social protection at the centre.